She turned her head and neck to his, which lay upon her right shoulder. Nolan could see equal parts Jack and Ms. Callie in her face. Her expression was calm, and a little concerned. She sighed.
"Nolan, I-I . . . I think about them every day okay?" Her voice broke. "I have their memories. Everything that they'd ever done when they were still al-alive . . ." Jackie's voice trailed, and she sniffled.
Jackie hesitated, her neck, twitching as she stood in silence.
But then, Nolan could feel her body shaking underneath him, and she had unmistakably begun to cry.
Nolan tried to find words to say.
Her voice was shaky. "I'm trying to do what they would do. I live every day to my fullest, to do what they never got to. I try to be your friend! I try to teach! I try to let them live . . . through me!" She turned her head to look at him halfway. her nose was red, her cheeks glistening with tears, her mouth stifling gasps. "But it-it's not working! Nothing feels right! I . . . I-I don-"
"Shut up, you!" Nolan jumped off, walked to the front, and took Jackie's head and neck into his shoulder and chest. It was wet.
He gently rubbed and patted her forehead, her unkempt blonde and black hair, and stroked her neck, as they stood still in the quiet darkness. A tear rolled down his cheek. He finally whispered.
"You're not them."
At long last, he came to terms with why he avoided Jackie so much. Why he was so uncomfortable around her. And why she always seemed to chase him down.
Jackie's sobbing ceased. After another minute of the comfortable embrace, Jackie lifted her head and neck up, here eyes and nose still puffy.
Nolan reached out his hands, and brought Jackie's forehead to meet his. He and Jack, ever the sci-fi nerds years ago, knew this as a Mandalorian "Keldabe Kiss."
"You'll always be my friend. Understand?"
Jackie nodded, and then stuck out her tongue to playfully lick Nolan's cheek.
They squabbled for a minute before Nolan climbed again onto her back. As they continued the trek back home, the darkness and the silence suddenly weren't so harrowing, and Nolan let his mind ease into jovial conversation, discussion, and laughter with his ride.
But behind them, in the endless dark beyond the streetlights’ glow, something else watched.
And waited.
No field in Oklahoma is ever silent on an Autumn night.
Not even with a New Moon . . .